Ramblings on Microsoft virtualization (Hyper-V) and storage

March 2012

03/12/2012

Earlier in February, EMC announced a new server Flash caching solution called VFCache, a hardware and software solution that leverages PCIe Flash technology to extend performance based caching from the storage array to the server. VFCache (codenamed "Project Lightning") increases throughput and reduces latency with a focus towards read intensive workloads including Microsoft SQL Server.

When used with an EMC Flash enabled array, VFCache can actually increase throughput up to 3x which means customers can extend the benefits they are seeing on the EMC array since the use of an embedded SSD on the PCIe card helps to bridge the performance gap between the server and storage. VFCache reduces the need to access data across the network from the storage array which is what helps to decrease the response times and increase the performance of the application. VFCache automatically determines which data is being frequently accessed and promotes this to the server Flash cache so reads are being serviced by VFCache while writes are being directed to the storage array.

In support of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 which was released last week, EMC recently completed testing of the EMC VFCache and SQL Server 2012 and achieved compelling results as noted below:

VFCache benefits SQL Server 2012 by:

Lowering database I/O latency by 60%

Enabling 50% more I/O serviced within 1ms

4X more transactions per SQL Server database

Perfect fit for OLTP workloads

EMC continues to provide innovative enabling technologies that help customers extend their Microsoft technology investments. Stay tuned for more EMC whitepapers focused on SQL Server 2012! In the interim, below are the recent test results based on SQL Server 2008 R2.

In a recent white paper entitled EMC VFCache Accelerates Microsoft SQL Server, we tested an online transaction processing (OLTP) database on SQL Server 2008 using a 90% reads to 10% writes workload. After establishing a baseline, the VFCache was enabled and testing proved an increase of transactions per second (TPS) from 1.0 TPS to 3.6 TPS – an increase of 260%!!!

The test results also displayed a reduction in latency from 1.0 read latencies to 0.13!

This momentum will continue, we encourage you to visit EMC at Microsoft Management Summit (MMS), Microsoft TechEd and EMC World to learn more about EMC VFCache and SQL Server! EMC has already indicated that another announcement called Project Thunder will be out soon in Q2 of 2012 and you know what they say…when you see Lightning, Thunder is close by! Stay tuned!

03/06/2012

Today Microsoft released SQL Server 2012 to Manufacturers. SQL "Denali" as it was known in its code name has several new features including improved availability through its Always On technology, new business intelligence tools and cloud ready technologies. Want to learn more? Join Microsoft's free SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch on March 7th, 2012 to attend keynote presentations, attend tracks around Mission Critical Confidence, Breakthrough Insights or Cloud on your Terms and visit exhibitor booths such as EMC's – all from the comfort of your office or home.

So what exactly does EMC have to do with all of this? A lot. EMC has been a major partner with the SQL Server team for many years. Through our integration and support, EMC helps to provide additional performance, extend availability, provide advance data protection, accelerate virtualization and provide services to help with deployments and migrations. For example, EMC support SQL Server through:

Data protection technologies such as Data Domain and Avamar provide up to 50% performance improvements compared to traditional solutions while technology like EMC Replication Manager provides snapshot copies of SQL Server databases for Read Only application consistent copies for test and development purposes to assist with testing new application code or running reports from a non-production copy of the data.

Multisite failover clustering provides instance-level high availability and disaster recovery as one of the architecture choices under SQL Server AlwaysOn. EMC continues to support local failover clustering configurations on its storage solutions, as well as multi-site and multi-subnet clusters with EMC Cluster Enabler extension which expands the range of cluster storage and management capabilities across long distances. EMC replication technologies like RecoverPoint make use of consistency groups, which let users ensures that data at any point in time will be replicated together and fully consistent, a huge benefit when protecting a federated environment of multiple SQL databases, instances or even servers with various file systems dependent on a SQL database such as Microsoft SharePoint.

EMC is a leading partner in the Microsoft SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse program since its introduction. EMC has created, tested and validated high-performance SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse configurations approved by Microsoft. Using these Fast Track architectures, EMC helps accelerate the planning and deployment of data warehouse configurations using best practices and documented guidance.

EMC's Storage Integrator (ESI) is a free easy to use tool for creating new disks in a physical or virtual Windows environment. Using wizards, administrators can view Hyper-V to EMC storage relationships while creating new disks and even configuring new SQL Server databases.